The urgency of climate change inspired the Pipeline Resistance Team (PRT) to build a movement to stop new crude oil pipelines proposed for Minnesota. We strategically engage at hearings, organize marches and bus trips, create resistance artwork, use civil disobedience, and build powerful coalitions within our state and region.

To get involved, come to one of our meetings every two weeks on Thursday evenings at 6:30pm at the MN350 office, 2104 Stevens Ave S in Minneapolis. For specific dates, check out the Events Calendar or the Weekly Action Alert.

Why It Matters

Here in Minnesota, we’re fighting to keep Canadian tar sands and North Dakotan fracked oil in the ground. Both kinds of crude oil are extreme in their contribution to climate change, destruction of land, water, air and communities, especially native communities. We resist the pipelines that are proposed to carry these oils because they encourage more extraction, and all leak toxic chemicals over their lifetime, polluting our water.

Photo Credit Dennis Lee

Background & Achievements

MN350 has been fighting pipelines since 2013. With consistent, strong, collaborative efforts from its large volunteer base, the PRT has:

built an educated, growing grassroots movement to address climate change by resisting pipelines

introduced the public to the regulatory pipeline approval process, and altering the process for the better;.

been educated by and collaborated with many indigenous and other groups in MN and neighboring states.

Currently, MN350 is fighting Enbridge Energy’s attempts to build the Line 3 pipeline on existing and new corridors across northern MN to carry tar sands crude oil. It would cross some of Minnesota’s most pristine lake country, best wild rice lakes and permeable soil, and threaten Indigenous People’s sovereign treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather.

Meanwhile, the old Line 3 would be abandoned. Enbridge’s Lines 1 and 2 are even older than Line 3, and Line 4 is also old, yet the state of Minnesota has no idea what the company’s abandonment plans are for these lines.

If the new Line 3 is built, we know that our environment, wildlife, and people will suffer during construction and from leaks, as predicted in the recently released Environmental Impact Statement. All pipelines leak; it’s just a question of where and how much.

What We’re Doing

We fight pipeline projects within the MN Public Utilities Commission (PUC) by attending PUC public meetings and hearings, supporting citizen interventions, and generating comments and testimony; and outside the PUC by holding rallies, participating in marches, attending sessions and protests at the Capitol, taking bus trips across the region, and taking direct actions that build public involvement.

We educate Minnesotans — about tar sands and pipelines in MN and their effect on people, the environment, and wildlife along the routes, and on oil’s contribution to climate change.

We show solidarity — for fellow pipeline fighters by joining them in their resistance. We have coordinated trips to northern MN, Wisconsin, DC, Indiana , and Nebraska.

We work to build alliances — with native-led groups statewide, with landowners in northern MN, and with national and regional allies such as Honor the Earth and the Sierra Club.

Photo Credit Arielle Johnson

How to get involved

The PRT meets every two weeks on Thursday evenings at 6:30pm at the MN350 office (2104 Stevens Ave S) to plan and take action. During these meetings, we share updates on current activities and issues, ask questions, make suggestions, and break out to smaller groups to focus on specific action items. For specific dates, check out the Events Calendar or the Weekly Action Alert.

The MN350 calendar is updated often, so please be sure to check it for the latest meeting and action opportunities dates and times. There are always more opportunities than there are volunteers, so please join us in taking action as often as you can. Together, we can slow down and ultimately stop the extraction of tar sands and the building of pipelines, all while creating the livable future we desire for ourselves and generations to come.

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What does 350 mean?

350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet. To preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current levels to 350 parts per million (ppm) - the safe limit to support life as we know it.

Learn more about 350—what it means, where it came from, and how to get there.
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